A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat

A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat is a thrilling adventure about a boy named Pong. Pong is held in Namwon Prison with his best friend, Somkit. Both Pong and Somkit have never done anything against the law, but they were unfairly locked in prison because they were born there. However, one day, Pong and Somkit make a plan to escape the prison. They would hide in a basket full of durian rinds and be brought to the city of Chattana in a garbage boat. Sadly, Somkit doesn’t make it into the basket quick enough, and Pong sails off on his own.

When Pong gets dumped in the water with the garbage, he nearly drowns. Only able to hang onto pieces of fruit to stay afloat. When Pong finally gets on land, he tries to steal food from the monks in a monastery but gets caught by the cook, he lies and says that the monks sent him, but the cook doesn’t believe him. When the head monk comes, he tells the cook that he did indeed send Pong, and Pong can’t believe what he heard. Time in the monastery passes quickly, and the head monk gives Pong many bracelets with odd blessings, including “May you never spill hot tea on your friends.” and “May you sleep through the sound of snoring.”

However, one day, Pong sees the prison warden coming to the monastery with his children and wife. Nok, the older of his kids, doesn’t recognize Pong from the prison, but Pong is twitchy all while they’re at the monastery. One day, when the head monk dies, Pong knows that he must escape and climbs onto a boat towards the city of Chattana.

Pong gets off the boat and nearly drowns for a second time, but his worries disappear when he sees Somkit. Somkit takes Pong into a hiding space during Pong’s time in the city Pong realizes that life outside the prison is just as unfair as inside. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. Somkit, Pong, and some other people they recruit along the way decide that they have to overthrow the Governer of Chattana and try to make it fair again.

I really loved the action in this beautifully written story. Soontornvat is an expert at making the reader feel like they actually are where Pong, or Somkit, or Nok is, describing every little detail almost to the extent where you feel like you can reach out and touch the setting, making the reader more tuned into the story instead of being just out of reach of it. Along with being a wonderful novel, A Wish in the Dark has also won a Newberry Award.